Archbishop
Also known as Marcus Sitticus, Marcus Sitticus von Hohenems
24 June 1574, Hohenems, Vorarlberg - 9 October 1619, Salzburg
Markus Sittikus was Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1612 to 1619. A cousin of Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, he deposed his predecessor with Bavarian military support and then spent his seven-year reign building. Hellbrunn Palace, the Hellbrunner Allee, the Steintheater Hellbrunn, and the cornerstone of the Salzburg Cathedral all date to his archiepiscopate. He died before seeing any of them finished.
The Hohenems family gave Salzburg two archbishops, and the results could not have been more different. Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau spent three decades in office building a baroque city, then lost everything in a coup he helped invite by alienating his Bavarian neighbours. Markus Sittikus was the coup. He arrived in 1612 backed by Bavarian troops, locked Wolf Dietrich in the fortress, and took the archbishopric.
He had seven years, and he used them the way rulers who sense their time is short sometimes do. The Hellbrunn complex south of the city was commissioned in 1613, built with Italian speed, and finished by 1615. The palace was never a home. It was a stage. The trick fountains, the water-powered automata, the rock-cut stone theatre behind the gardens: all of it was built for entertainment, for showing what money and Italian taste could do in an Austrian mountain city. The first opera staged north of the Alps was performed on that stone theatre.
The Hellbrunner Allee, the 4 km processional avenue connecting the city to Hellbrunn, was planted in the same years and still survives. He renamed Wolf Dietrich’s “Altenau” across the river to Mirabell, erasing its origin as a palace built for a mistress and recasting it as dignified episcopal property. And the cornerstone of the Salzburg Cathedral was laid on his instruction in 1614, though he did not live to see it consecrated.
He died in 1619. Paris Lodron, who succeeded him, consecrated the cathedral in 1628 and kept Salzburg neutral through the worst war in Central European history. Markus Sittikus started the cathedral, planted the avenue, and built the pleasure garden that still soaks visitors every summer. The Salzburg that tourists see today rests substantially on those seven years.
On the map
The 6 places on this page, where they actually stand.
Locations
Built 1613-1619
Summer residence of Markus Sittikus, built by Santino Solari in Italian Renaissance style (1613-1619). The palace itself is elegant and relatively austere; its fame rests on the extraordinary grounds: the Wasserspiele (trick fountains), the Steintheater, the Sound of Music Pavilion, and the zoo.
The world's oldest preserved Baroque avenue. A 4 km corridor of mature chestnuts and oaks planted by Archbishop Markus Sittikus between 1613 and 1615 as a processional route connecting the Residenz to his summer palace at Hellbrunn Palace. Flat, car-free, and lined with trees that predate almost everything in Salzburg's tourist canon. Walk or cycle it.
Built 1606
Built in 1606 by Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau as "Altenau," a palace for his mistress Salome Alt. Renamed "Mirabell" by Markus Sittikus. The current baroque building is largely the work of Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt (1721). Today it serves as Salzburg's city hall. The Marble Hall is one of the finest baroque rooms in Austria.
Baroque
The official palace and seat of power of the Prince-Archbishops for over 200 years. Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau rebuilt it in grand baroque style. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed for the Archbishop in these very rooms. Troger's frescoes look down from the state rooms. Today the Prunkraume and Residenzgalerie are open to visitors. Directly on Residenzplatz.
Consecrated 1628
The first baroque cathedral built in the German-speaking world, and the dominant church at the heart of Salzburg's Altstadt. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was baptised here on 28 January 1756. The site has held a cathedral since 774, when Saint Virgil of Salzburg consecrated the first one.
Built c. 1612-1615
Believed to be the oldest existing open-air stone theatre north of the Alps. The first Italian opera north of the Alps was performed here in 1617, under the patronage of Markus Sittikus. A natural rock grotto shaped into a theatre at the edge of the Hellbrunn park.
